New Hampshire Foundations of Reading Practice Test

What defines a compound word?

1. A word that is spelled the same but pronounced differently

2. A unique word formed by merging two or more words

3. A word that shares roots with another in a different language

4. A word consisting entirely of prefixes or suffixes

The correct answer is: A unique word formed by merging two or more words

A compound word is defined as a unique word formed by merging two or more individual words. This process effectively combines the meanings of the original words to create a new, single word that conveys a complete idea. For example, "toothbrush" combines "tooth" and "brush" to describe a specific object used for dental hygiene. The other options describe different linguistic concepts. The first option refers to homographs, which are words that are spelled the same but have different meanings and may also have different pronunciations. The third option discusses cognates, which are words in different languages that share a common etymological origin, while the fourth option relates to affixes, which are non-word elements that modify the meaning of root words. Thus, these selections do not pertain to the definition of a compound word, reinforcing why the choice about merging words is the correct one.